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delta dynamics
bucharest, romania
july 2014
status:
special mention
bucharest design week competition
project team:
josé ramos
quynh quach
Since 1938 Letea is the oldest natural reserve in Romania and is considered the initial foundation of the Danube´s delta biosphere reserve.

 

The area of Letea is defined by its extreme landscape diversity. Surrounded by numerous canals covered with water plants, there is the northern most subtropical forest in the world hosting different species of exotic plants and trees, which seeds were brought by numerous migrating birds every year, next to century old oak trees (with specimens which are over 400 years old), close to wild horses and huge sand dunes. This area represent the veriety of landscape that can be experienced at the Danube's delta biosphere reserve and can be a good example to  promote it as an extraordinary ecotourist destination.

 

Considering the amount of living systems that live in the delta, induce to think about it as a superinfrastructure that host life.  A system that function as a generator of landscapes in motion related to changing waterscapes and fluctuations of animals and plants during the year.

 

The idea of the landscape itself as infrastructure for life is the main concept of the proposal for a floating installation at the Domovita site, between the Uniri Square and the National Library, in Bucharest.

 

To show this interpretation of the delta with the installation proposed, it takes the shape of a triangle (related to the letter “delta” of the greek alphabet). This form is used as a frame to generate a mesh with its sides. The density of the mesh varies and produces 3 irregular areas and each one represent an existing delta landscape or scenario: wetlands (very low density mesh with vertical cylinders), forests (average density with high horizontal sticks) and sandbanks (high density with vertical cylinders that create a landscape).

 

The material to generate the meshes  is pine wood (beautiful, cheap, local and renewable) and the intersections  of the mesh are accentuated by vertical sticks, making more visible the idea of density that customize each island.

 

These 3 wood structures are fixed on used drums and connected with a rope.  They float on the water surface surrounded by local water plants that do not need maintenance. Floating free and related through their moves, the 3 islands act as a landscapes in motion as well as an infrastructre for life: with the time, the plants will grow, covering the wood, looking as a green mass on the water.

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